Howard warns on India’s cricket power

John Howard has sounded a warning about the centralization of cricket power in India after his nomination for the International Cricket Council vice-presidency was voted down.

The former Australian Prime Minister’s nomination was rejected at an ICC board meeting in Singapore this week by six of 10 test playing nations voting mainly along racial lines.

His election should have been a formality as, by convention, the vice-presidency changes hands every two years on a rotational basis. After two years the vice president becomes the president.

Howard said Sunday he still wanted to become vice president but had left his candidacy in the hands of Cricket Australia and New Zealand Cricket which had nominated him.

“I’d like the job but at this stage it has hit a roadblock and what happens from now on is really CA’s call,” Howard said. “It’s not about me, it’s about the future of the game.

“I went into this because I love cricket very much and I had the time to devote to it and the energy and the commitment but what happens from now on ... CA and New Zealand Cricket have been asked to re-nominate and they separately and together will meet and talk about the situation.

“They’ve got to pay regard to what’s happened, given that we had apparently put in place a procedure for choosing by rotation the president and vice president of the ICC, and that appears to have been pushed to one side in the last week. But, equally, they’ve got to look at the future of the game.”

Howard was quizzed Sunday on reports that Indian board president Shashank Manohar had been instrumental in rallying opposition to his candidacy.

India, as the source of much of cricket’s global revenue has become the game’s predominant power broker, breaking traditional administrative domination by white nations England, Australia and New Zealand.

“It is very important we understand there’s got to be a fair sharing of responsibilities and no one part of the world, no one country, should dominate,” Howard said.

“People in the past criticized the fact it was dominated by England and Australia and now we don’t want to replace one perceived domination with another.

“That in a way is why the ICC put in place this rotation system and that’s one of the issues CA have got to take into account when it responds to what has happened.” – (AP/Sydney)